tsnaw^ School 




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ALLEN LATSHAW 

Founder and Director 



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1' H E 


LATSHA W 


SCHOOL 


ALLEN LATSHAW 

Founder and Director 


« * * 

3412-3414 Sansom Street 
Pniladelpnia 


THE MAPLES 
BERWYN, PENNSYLVANIA 



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Copyrighted, 1915, by 
Allen Latshaw 

All rights of reproduction are reserved. 
The pictures of children are printed 
by special permission of the parents. 



(S)CI.A410333 

;ep -8 1915 



Xhe Latsnaw Scnool 



Aim 

OUR aim is to develop backward, subnormal or defect- 
ive children — those who have latent powers but who 
have not learned how to use them under ordinary 
conditions — into their natural normal activities so that they 
may take their rightful place in the world, to live and work 
with their fellows. 

What Boys and Girls We Help 

The boys and girls whom we develop into normal life in- 
clude those whom friends call "silly" or "peculiar"; whom 
physicians call "nervous," "defectives," "imbeciles," or "idiots"; 
whom teachers call "stupid," "dull," "dumb," "backward," 




The Maples from the Playgrounds 
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The Latshaw School 

"subnormal," "feeble-minded." In fact, any child who is "not 
like other children" needs and is improved by our care. 

No case is hopeless. Children whom physicians and other 
educators have classed as "degenerates ' and recommended 
placing in an institution where, removed from the world and 
public notice, they exist in hopeless mental and physical bondage 
— even such children have under our care developed into useful 
members of society, with average intelligence and activities. 

Our greatest mission is for those boys and girls who are 
slightly deficient, who are not able to progress in ordinary 
schools because they are "backward," "incoriigible," or "mis- 
understood" by their teachers. Under our sympathetic and 




Main Porch 
7 



The Latshaw School 

scientific care they develop into unusually bright students, able 
to rejoin their fellows in the regular school, competent to meet 
all the demands of social life. Such pupils on the borderland 
between normal and subnormal have been led by us into 
remarkable activities. 

We are developing the so-called "degenerates" of all kinds 
into useful members of society, freed from the supposed taint of 
heredity. 

Age of Admittance 

In our long experience we have helped children from three 
years old to twenty-one years old. In severe cases it is impor- 




Music Room, with Schoolroom on the left 
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The Latshaw School 

tant that the children be placed in our care as early as possible 
before the habits of retarded or irregular life have grown too 
strong. The younger the child the more thorough will be his 
development into normal activities. Yet our success in rousing 
older children, even adults, to a consciousness and normal use 
of their powers has been so remarkable that we are warranted 
in saying that any immature person will be benefitted by our care. 
Parents of subnormal children sometimes are unwilling to 
send their children away as long as they can be kept within 
their own home without attracting notice. They wrongly feel 
that the children will do as well at home until they are six or 
seven years old or even older. They feel, especially mothers, 
that the child will be better cared for at home. We earnestly 




Lunch Room 
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The Latshaw School 

urge such parents to visit our home and see how remarkable a 
family we have ; how every child is a member of our family 
group and cared for as carefully, even more carefully than is 
possible in his own home. At all hours of the day and night 
he is surrounded with sympathetic friends and home comforts to 
draw him from his clouded life into the brightness of well- 
rounded interests and activities. Everything necessary to his 
health, happiness and progress is provided for. 

Our Method 

Our method deals with a distinct system of general educa- 
tion, fundamentally different from any other. It finds the real 




A Bedroom 
13 



The Latshaw School 

individuality of the pupil and teaches him how to develop that 
individuality by his own initiative. 

This system utilizes the natural method of growth and of devel- 
oping the physical body through the agency of the mind, which 
is, in its broadest sense, mind's own method of developing and 
using its organism. Through perception, comparison, idealiza- 
tion and original application the pupil's world of activities 
becomes a unit and his enthusiasm rouses and becomes an ever- 
present stimulus. 

Patience, sympathy and the understanding of childhood 

enable us to achieve results as specialists in the growing of 

minds. As a sculptor models the crude lump of clay into the 

ealization of his ideal, so we, knowing the possibilities of a 



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The Maples in Winter 
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The Latshaw School 

child, conscious of the real individual which has been retarded 
by accident, little by little model his inert brain until he becomes 
the real human being that nature intended him to be. 

Our method is individual and personal. "When a child comes 
to us, no matter how retarded mentally or defective physically, 
our first work is to find what the child is interested in. Most of 
these seemingly inert or erratic children live a life of specialized 
mental activity, centering round a few ideas or emotions, but 
differing much from normal children of wide interests. To the 
ordinary observer, they appear to be without conscious life, to 
have absolutely no interest in their environment, to have neither 
sense nor imagination. 




Another part of the Museum 
17 



The Latshaw School 

But in all the twenty-four years of our experience with 
thousands of normal and subnormal children, we have never 
discovered a single case in which the child had no interest. No 
matter how listless or lifeless the child may seem, we always 
persist until we find his interest and develop it, and around that 
interest as a center of attention we gradually build up for the 
child a world of interests. From the slightest physical and 
mental effort, we develop an increasing series of physical and 
mental activities until the child emerges from his restricted life 
into the full daily enjoyment of normal senses and activities. 
We continually rouse him from];his dormant state until under 
our constant guiding care he develops naturally into the full 




Reception Room 
19 




Some of our Assistants 



The Latshaw School 

stature of manhood. After our pupils leave us, we continue to 
advise their parents and to direct their further work until they are 
thoroughly reset in their home surroundings. 

History of the School 

The Latshaw system has been gradually developed during the 
Director's wide experience as an educator of children. Five of 
the best training schools in the country, including the University 
of Pennsylvania, and over seven thousand pupils representing 
nearly every age, grade, mental quality and social condition have 
been mcluded m the Director's experience during the past twenty- 
four years: this, in connection with an original study of man in 
his various activities, has produced a system of general education 




One of the Schools where Prof. Latshaw began his Teaching 
21 




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VIEW TOWARDS THE SOUTHWEST 







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Specimens of Prof. Latshaw's Own Work as a Student 




In the ^Vorkshop 



The Latshaw School 

which, when put to the severest possible test, has fully proven 
the claims of its founder. 

Prof. Latshaw early began his work as a teacher in the 
Public Schools, rising from grade work until he became Super- 
visor of Drawing and Vocational Training in many public and 
private schools in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. 
His attention was early attracted to "backward" pupils, and 
gradually the children who were making trouble in other classes 
or were failing to progress came to him for the help necessary 
for adjustment to their regular work. This side line to his 
regular teaching increased until the demands for this special 
instruction were so great that he relinquished his regular classes 




Shells in the Museum 
25 



The Latshaw School 

to devote his whole time to developing the minds of subnormal 
children. 

The Latshaw Special School was formally opened as a day 
school in 1 904 and as a boarding school in 1912. The 
Boarding School was moved in the spring of 1 9 1 4 to its present 
quarters, The Maples, Berwyn, Pa. 

Prof. Latshaw has sacrificed every personal interest to this 
work of growing minds; his methods have opened up a new 
field of curative science and are accomplishing what formerly 
was considered impossible. 

Our Location 

Our Day School is located at 3412-3414 Sansom Street, 




Children's Handiwork 
27 



The Latshaw School 

Philadelphia, and our home or Boarding School at The Maples, 
Berwyn, Pennsylvania, which is seventeen miles west of Phila- 
delphia on the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here 
is our Main Building, a commodious private house, resting on 
the summit of a gentle slope, with open country on three sides. 
The grounds are four acres in extent, with space for all kinds of 
outdoor amusements. 

The healthfulness and beauty of the location is well attested 




Children's Handiwork 
39 



The Latshaw School 

by the magnificent estates in the immediate neighborhood. The 
continuous round of interesting mental and physical activities, 
pure country air and food, pure water, the comforts of a well- 
regulated family, and the freedom of outdoor life have resulted 
in remarkable health for all children under our care. The near- 
ness of the city with the frequent train service is an advantage 
for visiting parents. 

The School physician is near at hand should any child need 
medical attention. And all the children are examined by the 
physician at regular intervals. Specialists from Philadelphia 
may be called in consultation if desired. But our children are 
remarkably healthy and seldom need special medical attention. 




Children's Handiwork 
31 



The Latshaw School 

Our Equipment 

The Maples contains everything needed for the comfort and 
progress of the children. The bedrooms are large, simply but 





An Interrupted Feast 
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PETS 



The Latshaw School 

tastefully and comfortably furnished, with perfect ventilation, and 
so arranged that a nurse is always in a communicating room. 

The dining room is large and bright; so is the kitchen with 
its sanitary equipment. In the schoolroom is every imaginable 
kind of toy and device to arouse the children's interest; many of 
these are of our own design and manufacture. Nothing that 
might awaken a child's dormant interest is lacking. 

The School Museum is probably the largest collection ever 
used by any school in stimulating sense perception. These 
children live so much within themselves that they must in every 
possible way be roused to an appreciation of the objective world. 
They must be led to desire, to feel, to hear, to see, to think, to 
do, to reason — more and more from day to day. Most interest- 




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In the Fold 




On the Hillside 



The Latshaw School 

ing are the articles that illustrate the gradual development of 
thought problems from the crude minds of primitive peoples up 
to modern culture. 

On three sides of the house is a roomy porch, constantly 
used by the children. 

On the grounds are many things to amuse the awakening 
minds — a tennis court, a vegetable garden, individual flower 
gardens, chickens, ducks, kittens, sheep — and wide lawns with 
shady trees and benches, ideal places for resting or romping. 

All our assistants and employees are carefully chosen; they 
are heart and soul in the work. We all live as one hopeful, 
happy family, rejoicing in the visible results of our training in the 
brightening minds of the children. 

Why not come and see for yourself? 

If you have a subnormal child, who, you realize, needs such 
help as ours, why not come pay us a visit and see for yourself 
how we work, how we live, and what we are accomplishmg? 




Off for a Ride 
37 





Feeding the Chickens 



The Latshaw School 

Bring the child with you. You will be welcome at any time. 
We have no secret methods of training or disciphne. You will 
see how the children are under constant patient care; how they 
are gradually trained to take care of themselves; but until they 
can do this responsibly, we are always helping them. 

Correspondence Confidential 

Many parents are naturally sensitive about their subnormal 
children. Years ago such children were supposed to be the 
result of tainted blood in the parents. But today science is 
proving that many of these little ones are the victims of accidents, 
not of vice; that their present condition is due to some severe 
nervous shock in their extremely sensitive prenatal existence or 
in the early days of infancy. Theirs is not the fault; nor are 
their parents to blame. Science is declaring that their burden 
of restriction must be and can be lifted. Why not remove your 
heartache by giving your own child his chance of normal 
maturity? We have helped others; we will help him. 

We are careful to keep the identity of our children from 
public attention. Your correspondence will be held confidential. 




Group 'Work — Vocational Training 
Each child made a complete thing which was combined into the group work 

39 




The Surprise 




The Greeting 



The Latshaw School 

Remember that this is a home, a family — not an institution; 
that we are hberators, not jailers; that our mission in life is to 
free these unfortunates from their restrictions. Our School work 
is not simply the coaching in language, mathematics, grammar, 
deportment, etc., but it is also the training and developing of 
the real nature of the child by strictly individual attention so that 
he will be enabled in due time to catch up in the race and take 
his place, without undue effort, with normal and average children, 
and profit by the regular routine of home and school life. 

We are specialists in the growing of minds. 




Group Work— Vocational Training 
Each child made a complete thing which was combined into the group work 

41 




Awakening 
Interest 



The pictures on this and the 
next page show the results of 
our system on an idiotic child 
who was deaf, dumb, blind and 
physically helpless at the age of 
three 





Closer 
Inspection 



The Latshaw School 

Terms 

A child may come to us at any time of the year and should 
remain continuously with us until restored to normal activities. 
The rates vary according to the age and condition of the child, 
ranging from $1200 a year up (twelve months). 

For further details and arrangements, address 

ALLEN LATSHAW 

Founder and Director 
The Maples 

Berwyn, Pennsylvania 




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